Sweet Potato

Sweet potato, not only is just sweet to your taste buds but also good for your cardiovascular health! it is an edible, underground tuber initially cultivated in the central american region. This crunchy, starch root vegetable is rich source of flavonoid anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber that are essential for optimal health.a botanically, this starch-rich tuber plant is a dicotyledon, belonging in the family of convolvulaceae, and named botanically as ipomoea batatas.

Weet potatoes (ipomoea batatas) are dicotyledonous, relatively smaller and possess very thin peel. Whereas, yams are monocotyledons, larger, features thick, rough, dark brown to pink skin depending up on the cultivar type.

Sweet potato is one of the high calorie starch foods (provide just 90 calories/100 g vis a vis to 70 calories/100 g in potato). The tuber, however, contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, and is rich source of dietary fiber, anti-oxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

Its calorie content mainly comes from starch, a complex carbohydrate. Sweet potato has higher amylose to the amylopectin ratio than that in potato. Amylose raises the blood sugaralevels rather slowly on comparison to simple fruit sugars (fructose, glucose etc) and therefore, recommended as a healthy food supplement even in diabetes.

The tuber is an excellent source of flavonoid phenolic compounds such as beta-carotene and vitamin-a.a100 g tuber provides 14,187 iu of vitamin a and 8,509 ag of i-carotene, a value which is the highest for any root-vegetables categories. These compounds are powerful natural antioxidants. Vitamin a is also required by the body to maintain integrity of healthy mucus membranes and skin. It is a vital nutrient for healthy vision. Consumption of natural vegetables and fruits rich in flavonoids helps to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.

The total antioxidant strength of raw sweet potato measured in terms of oxygen radical absorbance capacity (orac) is 902 amol te/100 g.

The tubers are packed with many essential vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin b-5), pyridoxine (vitamin b-6), and thiamin (vitamin b-1), niacin, and riboflavin. These vitamins are essential in the sense that the human body requires them from external sources to replenish. These vitamins function as co-factors for various enzymes during metabolism.

Sweet potato provides a good amount of vital minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and potassium that are very essential for enzyme, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism.

Sweet potato leaves are indeed more nutritious than the tuber itself. Weight per weight, 100 g of fresh leaves contain more iron, vitamin c, folates, vitamin k, and potassium but less sodium than its tuber.